


Elle's Marble Racing

by Worldsinwords



Category: Jelle's Marble Runs (Web Series), 少女☆歌劇 レヴュースタァライト -Re LIVE- | Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight -Re LIVE- (Video Game), 少女☆歌劇 レヴュー・スタァライト | Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight (Anime)
Genre: Commentary, Crack Treated Seriously, Elle is watching over everyone, Gen, Self-Indulgent, marble racing, marbles AU, pov is first person due to commentary, this fic is bonkers af but give it a shot, you are the RS marble racing Au, you have two elles inside you one is a marble the other is the commentator
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:48:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25923085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Worldsinwords/pseuds/Worldsinwords
Summary: Revue Starlight as marbles racing, inspired by Jelle's marble racing with Elle being the commentator.What more can you want or need?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	1. Opening Ceremony

Oh, what a beautiful day. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping. And the stadium is filled with marbles all over the world to watch the friendly rounds of the performance festival tournament.

Hello to everyone in the crowds and those watching at home. My name is known as Elle, your commentator for today. I’ll be with you watching the events live from the commentary box. This is going to an interesting event, we got 5 teams getting ready for today's all famous funnel event. But we’ll get to that later, let's go meet our teams! 

Coming straight from the entrance is none other than the infamous Team Starlight! 

Team Starlight, composed of Karen, Mahiru, Nana, Hikari and their captain Junna. What’s interesting is that only a few weeks prior Karen was the captain of Team Starlight and now it’s Junna! I wonder what happened in the team that caused this and I only offer the best to newly-promoted Junna. Especially when Karen becomes a little too loose with the new freedom, look at Junna dragging Karen away from the kids. I can’t read Junna’s face since marbles have none but I can tell she must be annoyed. At least Hikari didn’t join her, rumours say those two are peas in a pod. 

Now coming next on the stage is none other than Starlight’s sister team Gang Star! 

Team Gang Star, a team full of veteran elites going by the names Maya, Claudine, Futaba and Kaoruko! Or well, used to be since their former teammate left on private reasons. This separation caused Gang Star to stop appearing in events for a few months— even changing Captains from Maya to Claudine. But now it seems they’re back in full, ready to show the world their brilliance! Or so their saying goes. 

For Gang Star’s fans, there should be a new face in the gang and her… oh wow… this is going to be interesting to commentate about. 

The new member of Gang Star’s name is Elle! Surprising I know, and I retract my previous statement of a new face. According to these sources, Elle was a huge Gang Star fan and with Maya in particular. Which probably explains the crowds right now. Everyone loves a good inspirational story. Imagine being in Elle’s place, or actually  _ Marbelle _ since she _ is _ a marble. You become inspired by a team, you train super hard and now you joined the team that started everything. Racing with your heroes… Truly incredible. 

Speaking of incredible, ladies, gentlemen and marbles it’s Team Edels! 

Now the Edels: Akira, Michiru, Mei Fan, Yachiyo and the new member Shiori, faced a lot of backlash over the months. From a former member, Fumi and her injury. The subsequent departure from marble racing following that injury. To the controversy of recruiting Fumi’s sister as their new team member. Honestly, it’s incredible how this group of marbles can stand strong amongst the controversy, especially their Captain Akira. Let’s just hope they continue to stay strong when performing. We have extra security today just in case to make sure that everything goes smoothly on the track. 

And just like that the entire stadium goes more wild, or wilder. The frontier pirates have appeared!

Team Frontier: Shizuha, Tsukasa, Misora, Lalafin and Aruru. A newly formed team full of veterans and new racers alike but that doesn’t mean they should be underestimated. Under their team Captain Aruru, Frontier has been sweeping the waves after waves of minor tournaments and finally made it to the big table. I wonder how it feels for them to be racing alongside infamous marble racers, especially the rookie captain Aruru. 

And now our fifth and final team— Wait. Hold on. It appears that there isn’t a fifth team. 

Team Rinmeikan also known as RMK is apparently not joining the festival tournament. According to the committee, they do not have enough members on the team to join. For those unaware, each marble team requires at least 5 members. It’s why despite previously training together as one big team, Gang Star and Starlight split so that each marble had more of a chance to shine on the track. 

This is an absolute shame, the crowd is in fact, booing the decision. For those confused, the only story better than an underdog, or an inspirational race with the heroes is a story of redemption. Team RMK is an old name that has long faded away until RMK’s captain Tamao showed up on the stage, a marble whose grand marble was in the old RMK team. Everyone, including myself, was anticipating what Tamao and the newly revived RMK would be.

Wait— This just in. RMK is in the festival tournament. I repeat RMK is in the marble tournament. Apparently, Ichie announced in a PR tweet right now that they found a new marble to roll with them and that the fans shouldn’t worry so much. 

I don’t know exactly who it is but the RMK team is coming into the stadium, everyone— the crowds and teams alike are eyeing the entrance. Here’s the music and here’s the— Oh my god. Can it be? 

Is that? I don’t know if I’m seeing this right but is that former Edel racer FUMI!?

I can’t believe it! The crowds are going wild! The older sister of the current Frau Jade Marble Shiori, infamous for her injury in the performance collisions of last year. The person who announced she quit marble racing is back for good. AND ON AN OPPOSING TEAM! 

How does Akira, Captain of the Edels look? 

Oh wow, even when marbles have no facial expressions I can just sense those raw emotions from the commentary box. I can’t tell what emotions it is since I have no face to read but I’m most positively certain that these feelings are at least too complex to get into in a short amount of time.

Anyways welcome aboard RMK and their members Tamao, Yuyuko, Ichie, Rui and Fumi into the performance festival tournament. For those just joining in this is only a friendly tourney, just to show off your skills and to compare your growth to the REAL festival tournament in a couple of months. The only thing that these marbles win here is just bragging rights. 

And it seems Fumi’s new appearance is causing more chaos than expected. Her sister, not caring about protocol, is going up to Fumi right now. It’s not for good luck apparently, it’s for answers. Oh my goodness I believe we need to take a break, at least for the privacy of our racers. 

* * *

However just because the event is being withheld that doesn’t mean we can’t explain to our listeners and watchers out there how we or well I, your commentator, can tell the marbles apart in the race. Honestly, you just get used to it after a while but it all comes down to the team patterns. 

Let’s take Team Starlight for example. The pattern of Team Starlight is a clear marble with two 4 pointed stars in the middle. One is slightly bigger than the other but what’s important is that the big star’s bottom and right point and the smaller star’s top and left point are touching. That’s the pattern of the team. To tell each member apart you need to remember the colour of the joined stars. 

Karen’s colour is red, Hikari’s is a blue, Junna’s is a light blue, Mahiru is a green and Nana’s colour is gold. 

Actually, since the event planners tell us they need more time let’s go with the rest of the teams!

In Team Gang Star, the pattern for the team well actually, they don’t have any major pattern. Compared to everyone else competing they are very clear in the patterns, but not plain mind you. Each member is coated with speckles of glittering dust that are described to be like the night starry sky. They don’t have any stripes, any see-through casing or any waves on their marbles. It’s only dust to represent their brilliance— dust and their colour. Of course, to tell each member apart all you need to do is look at them, each has a different colour. 

Kaoruko is a light pink, Futaba is a purple, Claudine is an Orange, Maya is a light grey and the newest member Elle is a teal. 

Now onto the chaotic mess that is Team Frontier— that’s a compliment by the way. Frontier’s pattern is a beautiful mess and honestly, I— and I’m sure the team too, wouldn’t want it any other way. See the thing with Frontier’s pattern is that it’s a wave but also a blend of everyone else’s colour in Frontier. The only way to know which marble is who is by looking at the biggest wave in the centre since everyone has a different colour. 

Aruru is yellow, Misora is sky blue, Tsukasa is orange, Lalafin is pink and Shizuha is light green. 

Now imagine a wavy mess in the centre of one colour and then all the other colours just waving under and over it creating this beautiful ball of chaos. What you get is a Team Frontier marble. 

Now going to the more sophisticated side… In Team Edels, the pattern is a white marble with waved stripes. Not to be confused with Frontier’s waves, no these stripes are regulated with a precise space in each one. Two wavy thin stripes, one larger one and then another two wavy thin stripes. See in Edels, Jewels mean something, so the line in the middle represents those jewels along with a title. In fact, the captain of the team is known as the Frau Platin, from the term platinum. 

It’s a bit harder to explain the Edels marble colours in general like saying Akira is grey due to the jewel in the middle so it’s best to do it one by one. 

Akira, the Frau Platin, has the colour of the stripes be dark blue, the jewel as previously mentioned is platinum so the major stripe is a dark grey. Michiru, the Frau Saphir, has the colour of the stripes be dark orange whilst the major stripe in the middle is a sapphire blue. Mei Fan, the Frau Rubin, has the colour of the stripes be dark purple whilst the main stripe is a ruby red. Do you see the pattern going with this?

Yachiyo, the Frau Perle, has the major stripe be in the middle— you guessed it, pearl pink! Whilst her smaller stripes either side are a darker tone of pink. Maybe salmon? I think? I don’t know my sub colours as you can tell. And finally, Shiori, the Frau Jade, has a jade major stripe in the middle whilst her smaller stripes are light blue. What’s interesting however is that unlike the other Edels, Shiori has the same rose with wings pattern over her sphere as her sister did. In a way, it does show that Shiori and Fumi are sisters since even after Fumi joined RMK she still has her rose wing patterns. 

Speaking of Fumi, I understand many people are confused about the change of patterns so let's get into that and about RMK’s patterns as a whole. 

The Rinmeikan pattern is fairly simple to understand, it’s the sakura petal all over the marble. What’s interesting however in Tamao’s team there is an added element too that’s not there before. There’s a hint of red. Perhaps it alludes to the fated red string of spheres? Who knows but I’m sure Ichie would tell us in a later PR hint after the tourney. It’s quite hard to describe the red part of each marble since it’s not the team pattern it’s unique for each person. 

However, that’s not exactly important when comparing who is who, what is important is saying that despite the flowers, each marble still has a unique main colour. 

Ichie is lavender, Tamao is purple, Yuyuko is a light red, Rui is a dark green whilst Fumi is light green. 

Anyways, as mentioned before, Fumi's red on the marble is simply her infamous rose with wings patterns that she shares with her sister. It’s the same pattern she had as a member of Team Edels. It’s clear that it’s a personal thing since her sister has a similar pattern so it’s not any violation of marble rules. Also, Fumi is not breaking any violations from transferring teams by the way and it might confuse people watching but she had every right to shed the Edels pattern to wear the RMK patterns. 

Thankfully it seems that the drama in the event track has calmed down so let’s begin. Onto the main event— The funnel event!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One day, yesterday in fact. I was watching marbles league, got sad the orangers got last in the collision (yes I'm an orangers fan OOOOOOOOOOO) and I said you know what favourite anime as a marble racing au. Hope y'all enjoy it!
> 
> Anyways, I tried my best to channel Greg woods. Hope it turned out well. I'm only going to leave it as this but if you want more-- 1. Holy shit. 2. Please comment so that I know lol. 
> 
> Oh yeah here is RMK as marbles (fanart): https://twitter.com/worldsinwords2/status/1294746404657795073?s=20
> 
> Here is a reference with some pictures if you can't fully visualise the marble teams: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gi9jeWbRRcuBko59c9JfWruQNHaFDtkEVRiPOER12zo/edit?usp=sharing


	2. Funnel Event

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now onto the Funnel Event!
> 
> With Nana, Michiru, Ichie, Aruru and Futaba at the starting gate!

And Welcome Back to the funnel Event! 

Where the end of the game is not to get to the bottom of the rac _ e but to stay in the funnels the longest.  _

There are 9 green funnels and if you fall down one you drop a layer— or even more. I remember one time Karen dropped at least three layers in one go. See the way the funnels work is that they’re layered on top of each other with a small space to allow the marble to drop down to the lower funnel. Think of it as a fountain, these marbles are just water dropping to the layer below. A fountain of marbles… I wonder what that looks like. 

Anyways, back in the starting gate, we have Nana, Futaba, Aruru, Michiru and Ichie. Interesting choices all around, usually the captains take the first event but only Aruru appears to be here. Though that doesn’t mean Aruru will take the win because she’s a captain, the rest of the competitors are nothing to scoff. Let’s just see how well everyone fares as the event begins. 

Ding. Ding. DING.

And they’re off and oooo… Futaba falls first to the second funnel almost instantly. Everyone else, however, is circling in the first funnel, eyeing each other up, pulling all the tactics to not go next. This is a race of stamina remember, you want to say in the funnels the longest— and as I say that Nana drops the to the second funnel and instantly goes to the third! 

Now Nana is in the last place but it’s only the third funnel, if she stays there long enough, everyone else can fall down to reach her. Speaking of falling, Ichie also dropped to the second funnel. She’s doing a very good job of keeping it together, missing Futaba entirely going around in wide arcs. Now it’s only Michiru and Aruru in the first funnel— no wait Aruru just fell to the second— and collides with Futaba! Futaba manages to take advantage of this but Aruru just misses Ichie and falls to the third funnel! 

What a display! I’m sure Futaba didn’t mean to collide with Aruru but it’s one of those things when you’re so busy making sure you don’t fall in you forget to look up who's joining you in the funnel. Speaking of joining, Michiru drops by into the second funnel just as Ichie joins the third funnel. It’s now a showdown between Michiru and Futaba, I wonder which marble will fall first and declare the other marble to be in the lead. 

Meanwhile, in the third funnel, Nana has truly shown her experience as a veteran racer by staying in the funnel for so long. Aruru and Ichie joined her and now they’re in a three-way marble standoff, everyone is just missing the opening to the fourth funnel. That being said, it’s now a four marble standoff as Michiru joined— no it’s back to a three as Aruru dropped to the fourth funnel. Futaba is currently in the lead now in the second funnel. 

Nana joins Aruru in the fourth funnel, but is quickly alone as Aruru drops AGAIN into the fifth funnel! Futaba now joins the third funnel as Ichie drops into the fourth— AND THE FIFTH FUNNEL! Ichie completely bypasses Nana and joins Aruru, tied in dead last. This is another reminder folks now that we’re halfway through the race that this is a Stamina race. You need to stay in the funnels the longest, so I really wonder how Ichie and Aruru can come back from this. Granted they do have four funnels left to redeem themselves. 

Now back to the showdown again with Futaba and Michiru on the third funnel, they’re still eyeing each other up and Futaba falls through! Though she’ll be in the fourth funnel alone because Nana joined Ichie and Aruru into the fifth funnel. Michiru in the third funnel is taking her sweet time in the lead, casually rolling and circling the drop entrance.

Back in the fifth funnel, Aruru drops down to the sixth funnel and now Michiru has fallen to the fourth funnel as well, joining Futaba. Oh wow, things seem to be getting intense now! Futaba just fell into the fifth funnel but at the same time, Ichie joined Aruru again in the sixth funnel! Nana and Futaba are circling each other but again, Nana drops down to the sixth funnel. Michiru also drops the fifth funnel resulting in another Futaba and Michiru showdown for the lead. 

This is getting intense folks, we’re nearing the end with only three funnels left. 

Back to the sixth funnel, Ichie Nana and Aruru are still going at each other, barely overlapping, barely missing. Glad to see Aruru learnt her mistake and improved her flexibility, well as flexible marbles can be. Oohhh— As I say that, Aruru drops down to the seventh funnel, though she’s not alone, Ichie follows by in the seventh funnel. These two, always in the lead to be the last place. I wonder if they would be better in the speedier events. 

Michiru now has dropped to the sixth funnel, allowing the showdown victory to Futaba. That being said Futaba also dropped to the sixth funnel and wow she goes directly to the seventh funnel! These transitions between funnels should really be a thing to work on for these teams all around, so many instant falls. 

Michiru follows Futaba rolling down to the seventh funnel, Nana is now in the lead at the sixth funnel. Though in a matter of seconds she falls to the seventh funnel joining everyone else. Wow, I just realised. This is the first time the entire group has been in one funnel for the longest, especially since Futaba fell first to the second funnel almost instantly. As I say that, Futaba drops to the eighth funnel and following her lead is Aruru and then Nana. AND OHHHH ARURU AGAIN FALLS DOWN ANOTHER FUNNEL INSTANTLY. 

Oh my goodness, Aruru is now the last place, in the ninth funnel. If she falls one more time, she’s dead last. I said it before, these transitions are really something marbles should work on. Imagine if a marble fell from the eighth funnel into the ninth funnel and instantly fell right through to the end, that would be so frustrating for the marble. Anyways, it seems Michiru as a new rival in the lead showdown, Ichie from Rinmeikan. 

Futaba now joins Aruru in the ninth funnel, Aruru despite dropping two funnels is holding on pretty well. Michiru now lost the lead to Ichie, dropping down the eighth funnel. Nana joins Futaba and Aruru in this close battle for the last place in the ninth funnel. At the same time, Ichie joins Michiru in the eighth funnel. 

OHHHH NOOO, Futaba falls down the ninth funnel and is _last_. Futaba from Team Gang Star is in the last place, I wonder if Nana or Aruru will join her in fourth place— Or Ichie since she just dropped down to the ninth funnel. Futaba did very well so far in the middle of the match, she put up a good fight against Michiru. Michiru, by the way, is still up there in the eighth funnel, going around the drop zone comfortably in the first place. 

Also turns out Ichie of Rinmeikan joins Futaba in the finish line, coming in fourth place. Michiru is still the eighth funnel. Aruru joins Ichie and Futaba in third place, a very good job for Aruru. She kept falling through funnels after funnels but managed at least a podium position if this was the real deal— the skill of the Captain folks. I’m sure the Frontier fans are happy about this position. 

I’ll say it again, the key thing I noticed here for all marbles around were the transitions from the funnels going down. Sometimes a marble after spinning around before dropping forgets to control the momentum of the speed and doesn’t pull up fast enough to escape the clutches of gravity. Control of the momentum and maybe angle too, sometimes going at a wider angle going down allows you to swerve to the outside lane. 

Michiru finally drops from the eighth funnel to the ninth— AND SHE IS UNABLE TO CONTROL HER MOMENTUM AND DROPS DOWN TO THE FINISH LINE. 

Oh my GOODNESS.

Just as I was explaining to the audience the struggles of transitioning between funnels, Michiru from Team Edels shows exactly what can happen. Michiru is now in second place allowing Nana from Team Starlight, still circling the drop zone in the centre of the funnel to be first. What an incredible event and an unfortunate turn around for Michiru and the Edel fans. The Starlight fans are going wild though in the stands, very happy for them. 

And at long last, Nana drops down the ninth funnel and into the finish line. Congratulations Nana from Team Starlight for the victory in the Funnel event.

However, this doesn’t mean you should leave anytime soon, turns out, due to the extended breaks all the teams agree to do two more events for the audience. The high jump event and then at the end, the relay event. So stay tuned for that. 

Now back to the podium, we can see Nana at the very top, Michiru in second place and Aruru in third. Congratulations again to Team starlight for the victory and a really good job to everyone else, that was an amazing first event. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN
> 
> I can't fucking believe this thing gets kudos, I'm glad y'all enjoy this also to make it FAIR I basically roll D20s for the dice so it literally goes on luck and a bit of working out. Also the reason why Michiru lost was because she rolled nat 1 in the ninth funnel and that's an instant drop through. 
> 
> I can't wait to share the other events and I hope you're enjoying this! 
> 
> Actual funnel racing from 2020 Marble League: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFNNldyI-0&t=367s


End file.
